1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to polynucleic acid nanostructures and lattices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previous motifs used to design 2D crystalline arrays have included the double crossover (DX) (Fu et al., 1993; Winfree et al., 1998), triple crossover (TX) (LaBean et al., 2000), the DNA parallelogram (Mao et al., 1999), and the four-by-four structure (Yan et al., 2003). These motifs have been used to produce 2D crystalline arrays lacking symmetry or with twofold symmetry (Seeman, 2003).
Metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles exhibit quantized optical and electronic properties that might be exploited in the design of future nanoelectronic devices (Alivisatos et al., 1996; Redl et al., 2003; Kiehl, 2000; and Likharev et al., 2003; Maier et al., 2001; and Shipway et al., 2000). However, this use requires the deliberate and precise organization of nanoparticles into specific designed structural arrangements. The control of the structure of matter on the finest possible scale entails the successful design of both stiff intramolecular motifs and robust intermolecular interactions. The specificity of DNA base-pairing has provided a ‘smart-glue’ approach to programming interactions between particles via hybridization of specifically designed linker strands (Alvisatos et al., 1996; Loweth et al., 1999; Zanchet et al., 2001 and 2002; Mucic et al., 1996; Storhoff et al., 1998; Jin et al., 2003; and Anderson et al., 2005). Previously, stiff motifs (Li et al., 1996; and Sa-Ardyen et al., 2003) based on branched DNA have been used to produce DNA structures with a variety of patterns that are visible in the AFM; these include stripes from DX molecules (Winfree et al., 1998), arrays with tunable cavities from DNA parallelograms (Mao et al., 1999), and honeycombs from DX triangles (Ding et al., 2004). DNA-functionalized 1.4 nm gold nanoparticles have been assembled into linear arrays forming parallel stripes on a 2D DNA striped scaffolding by self-assembly during scaffolding formation (Xiao et al., 2002) and 6 nm gold nanoparticles with multiple DNA attachments have been fashioned into similar arrays by in situ hybridization to a pre-assembled scaffolding on a striped DX surface (Le et al., 2004). Sequence-encoded in situ assembly of 5 nm and 10 nm gold particles in alternating stripes has also been achieved (Pinto et al., 2005). While such linear nanoparticle arrays are of interest for some applications, other periodic arrangements also offer significant potential. Furthermore, a more precise control over nanoparticle positions than that afforded by polyvalent functionalization is highly desirable.
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